At the present time there are many types of games of chance in which a winner is selected using a random process. For example, in a state-sponsored lottery or sweepstake a person buys a lottery ticket and selects a series of numbers, i.e., he selects 5 or 6 numbers with each number being from 1 to 50. A series of numbers is then derived by a random process, such as by dropping numbered ping-pong balls.
Various games of chance are shown in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,024,641; 6,017,032; 5,938,200; 5,855,369; 5,791,991; 4,721,309; 4,689,742 and 4,494,197.
A “drawing” is a similar type of game, except the numbers are assigned to the players and not selected. For example, all the persons at a concert are told to hold on to their ticket stubs. The stubs are numbered. At the end of the concert a number is randomly selected and the person with the ticket stub holding that number wins a prize.
This general idea, of picking a winner at random, has been used by various Internet web sites in order to attract viewers. In one example, a web site, which is the “server”, advertises that it will give cash prizes to winners, which are its “clients”. The prize may be an award of $1000 each day. The person logs on to the web site to enter the contest. The web site derives revenue from selling advertisements which are displayed to viewers who log on to its site. The winners, presumably, are selected by some random process.
This type of game is a “drawing”, as distinct from a “lottery”, since the user does not purchase a ticket. In general a lottery, in which the user pays to enter the game, may be illegal in various states of the United States of America and in some foreign countries. In New York State, the Penal Law Section 225 defines “Gambling” as when “A person . . . stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest or chance or a future contingent event . . . ”
Those Internet drawings, in which the users log on and obtain a chance of winning, without paying to enter, may not be “gambling” and may therefore be legal.
Also, at the present time, persons who purchase goods and services, such as restaurant meals, gasoline, grocery items, clothing, movie theater tickets, etc., generally receive a receipt for their purchase. Such receipts are almost always given when the items are purchased using a credit card. The receipt generally has the date and very often has the time (hour and minute) that the receipt is printed. Many receipts also display the ZIP (postal) code of the establishment. Some people save such receipts for their records, but many others throw them away. In addition, other types of paper documents are printed with a time and date, including parking tickets, ATM receipts, and bank deposit receipts.